Utaha Kasumigaoka picked up her bag and left.
On her way out, she stopped by the front counter and paid for both of their coffees before raising her phone toward Xia Chuan in farewell and leaving the café.
Xia Chuan simply watched her walk away.
He hadn’t expected to completely win over Utaha Kasumigaoka in just one day.
Still, judging from her various reactions, he had clearly left an excellent impression on her.
After leaving the café, Xia Chuan headed toward the bus stop.
His house wasn’t particularly far from the chain bookstore operated by Kadokawa, but walking there would still take more than twenty minutes.
Xia Chuan therefore decisively chose public transportation.
He could have taken a taxi, but the moment he saw the graceful figure standing at the bus stop, that thought disappeared from his mind.
“Looks like we won’t need to contact each other by phone for the time being, Senpai.”
Hearing the voice behind her, Utaha turned around.
She wasn’t particularly surprised.
After all, this was the only bus stop in the immediate area.
“You seem pretty happy, Junior.”
“It’s because there’s a chance I might be taking the same bus as you, Senpai.”
Utaha gave a soft laugh.
“You’re not even trying to hide your intentions anymore, are you, Junior?”
“This is simply the excitement of a fan meeting his idol.
I’m sure you can understand, Senpai.”
Their conversation didn’t last long.
Just then, a bus pulled into the station, immediately drawing both their attention.
Seeing that it was the route she took home, Utaha smiled.
“Are you taking this bus too?”
“What a coincidence.
I actually am.”
It wasn’t as though Xia Chuan had deliberately arranged it.
Route 21 really did stop near his house.
But to Utaha, those words carried a slightly different meaning.
She had taken Route 21 many times before, yet she had never encountered Xia Chuan on it.
Given how clever she was, how could Utaha not understand what Xia Chuan was thinking?
She wasn’t being arrogant when she said she was confident in her appearance and figure.
Naturally, attracting Xia Chuan’s attention wasn’t particularly surprising.
And she wasn’t bothered by it at all.
After all, she already had a very favorable impression of him.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been the one to ask for his contact information.
Besides, Xia Chuan himself was an exceptionally outstanding person.
With the combination of his qualities and the fact that he openly admired her, Utaha couldn’t help feeling somewhat pleased.
She even imagined the situation as though it were a scene from one of her novels.
For some reason, that thought gave her an inexplicable thrill.
Bang!
The bus doors opened.
Utaha stepped onto the bus.
Her mood had been warm and pleasant only moments earlier.
But the instant she stepped inside, she couldn’t help shivering.
A strange chill washed over her.
“Is the air conditioning turned down too low?”
She muttered to herself and didn’t think much more about it.
She walked toward the rear of the bus and sat down on the right side, moving one seat inward.
It almost seemed as though she had deliberately left the seat beside the aisle open.
Xia Chuan had also been in a good mood.
But the moment he boarded the bus, he immediately realized that something was wrong.
It was still around sunset.
Yet apart from himself and Utaha Kasumigaoka, there wasn’t a single other passenger on the bus.
More importantly, the energy inside his body was clearly warning him.
There was an extremely dense cursed presence permeating the bus.
Bang!
The moment Xia Chuan stepped onto the bus, the doors slammed shut.
Without the slightest pause, the bus released a burst of air and began rumbling forward.
Utaha, unaware of what was happening, noticed that Xia Chuan was still standing there.
Thinking of something, she smiled and patted the seat beside her.
“Weren’t you being quite proactive earlier, Junior?
Are you waiting for me to invite you over now?”
Hearing that, Xia Chuan naturally sat down beside her.
With their distance now much smaller than before, he could clearly smell the faint floral fragrance naturally emanating from Utaha.
Utaha could naturally sense their closeness as well.
A faint blush appeared on her face beneath her teasing expression.
For her, this was an unusually rare reaction.
Then she noticed that Xia Chuan wasn’t saying anything.
Instead, he kept looking toward the front and scanning the surroundings of the bus.
Seeing his seemingly nervous and awkward expression, Utaha’s already pleasant mood became even more cheerful.
“Why aren’t you saying anything, Junior?”
“Are you getting shy?”
“It’s not really shyness.”
Xia Chuan’s expression became serious.
“Right now, I’m more worried than embarrassed.”
That answer was completely outside Utaha’s expectations.
She looked at him in confusion.
Before she could ask anything, Xia Chuan continued.
“Senpai, no matter what happens later, don’t be afraid.”
“…?”
Utaha couldn’t understand him.
Ever since getting on the bus, Xia Chuan had been acting strangely.
But before she could think any further—
Bang!
A tremendous impact suddenly came from both sides near the front of the bus.
Utaha jumped in fright.
She immediately turned toward the sound.
There were now several deep dents in the front of the bus.
Even more horrifying were the black handprints pressed against the glass.
Utaha nearly screamed.
Then she instinctively glanced out the window.
Her pupils contracted.
Just moments ago, they had been traveling through a brightly lit city.
Now, however, the world outside the windows was pitch-black.
There was no way to tell where they were.
“This…”
Utaha’s voice trembled.
She suddenly remembered some of the supernatural stories she had read before.
No matter how many times she told herself that ghosts didn’t exist in the real world…
How could she possibly remain calm in a situation like this?
Were ghosts actually real?
The moment that thought emerged in her mind, Utaha’s hands and feet went cold.
Her mind went blank.
She was still a girl, after all.
No matter how bold she normally was, experiencing something this bizarre firsthand was an entirely different matter.
She began trembling.
Then she remembered Xia Chuan’s earlier warning.
Without thinking, Utaha curled up closer to him.
Her hand tightly grabbed his clothes.
At this moment, Xia Chuan was clearly the only person she could rely on.
“What…
what’s happening?”
“We’ve probably encountered something bad.”
Xia Chuan’s voice remained calm.
“But don’t worry.
We’ll be fine.”
Beneath the disguise of his ordinary eyes, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan had already appeared.
At once, the scene inside the bus changed in his vision.
He could finally see the thing responsible for the cursed presence.
It was a bloated, grotesque monster almost as large as the entire bus.
Its eyes were nothing more than pitch-black hollows.
Its mouth had been sewn shut with thick, blood-black thread.
But what made the creature especially disgusting was the countless hands protruding from various parts of its body.
Some were large.
Some were small.
All of them writhed grotesquely.
Neither its appearance nor the cursed energy radiating from its body was comparable to the weak spirits Xia Chuan normally lured out deliberately.
This was probably the kind of curse capable of causing actual deaths.
Yet…
It didn’t seem to be that powerful.
At least, the amount of energy contained within it was still far below Xia Chuan’s own.
At most, it was simply much larger than the spirits he normally encountered.
“Senpai, do you have anything sharp on you?”
Xia Chuan looked at the disgusting, bloated creature covered in hands.
He clearly had no desire to touch it directly.
Utaha still had no idea what was happening.
But after hearing Xia Chuan’s question, she immediately answered,
“Does the needle on a compass count?”
“That’s a little too small…”
Xia Chuan paused.
“Never mind.”
He stood up and walked toward the left side of the bus.
Energy surged through his body.
He threw a single punch.
BOOM!
The supposedly sturdy bus window shattered under his fist.
Xia Chuan immediately grabbed a large, sharp fragment of glass and held it like a sword.
He shook the glass blade once.
“This will do.”
“Senpai, keep your eyes closed.
It’ll be over soon.”
Utaha was still stunned by the fact that Xia Chuan had smashed through the bus window with one punch.
She hadn’t even had time to process the ridiculous amount of force behind that strike.
Hearing his words, she obediently closed her eyes tightly.
The grotesque spirit seemed to understand Xia Chuan’s words.
It released a vicious roar.
The numerous hands covering its body suddenly stretched outward and lunged toward Xia Chuan.
Every movement was captured perfectly by the Sharingan.
Xia Chuan easily dodged the attacks.
At the same time, the glass blade in his hand flashed repeatedly.
One hand after another was severed.
The creature recoiled.
Taking advantage of the brief opening while it was recovering its limbs, Xia Chuan suddenly exploded forward.
Boom!
The floor beneath his feet shook from the force.
In an instant, he appeared directly in front of the monster, the glass blade firmly in his grasp.
With the Sharingan locking onto his target, Xia Chuan drove the glass blade straight into the top of the creature’s head.
The monster let out a horrifying shriek.
Its enormous body staggered backward.
Xia Chuan didn’t give it the slightest opportunity to recover.
He poured more energy into his body.
The glass blade swept downward.
Slash!
Its head was split open.
BOOM!
The severed head crashed violently against the front windshield, producing a deafening impact.
The headless monster staggered.
Then its enormous body collapsed helplessly.
Its remains gradually dissolved into black fragments before disappearing completely.